Okay, this Poetry Friday contribution is a review of a picture book by Tony Mitton (illustrations by Selina Young) called Once Upon a Tide. The good thing about Poetry Fridays and kid books is that many, many children's books are actually rhyming, so there's lots of material.

Once Upon a Tide is a picture book in verse for the very young. It is narrated from the point of view of a young boy who tells of his adventures at the sea with his older sister, Bess. (Actually, Bess looks like his sister, but it isn't clear from the text.) In any case, the story begins as follows:

Down by the seashoreBess and Istood on the sandand looked at the sky.

Bess got the hammer.I got the saw.We both built a boatright there on the shore.

And off they go. They make a sail, meet a Sea Captain and a whale. They find an island and buried treasure. Pirates make an appearance, only to be frightened away by the whale. And then they sail home and build a hut from their boat. The story concludes:

We made our homeon that same shore.And we both lived thereforever more,singing songsof far-off seas,with children sittinground our knees...